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The Verge's staff has spent a week testing all five newly launched Googlebook laptops from Google's OEM partners and reports that the hardware is strong but the new operating system is riddled with problems. Testers cite missing features like swiping between desktops, inconsistent handling of Android apps, and basic text interactions that don't work properly in apps like Signal.
Frederick County's school board voted 6-1 to prohibit AI tools from pre-K through 12th grade, reversing its earlier decision to let middle and high school students use Google Gemini with teacher permission. Exceptions remain for lessons teaching about AI and for accommodations for students with disabilities. The reversal comes just weeks after Gemini was introduced to older students this school year.
A tool has emerged that helps users manage or free up Gmail storage without subscribing to Google's paid cloud storage tiers. The approach targets users who repeatedly hit storage limits and are prompted to upgrade to a paid Google One plan.
Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative concluded Pwn2Own Ireland 2026, awarding $1,262,000 across three days as researchers demonstrated 98 zero-day vulnerabilities in devices including the Samsung Galaxy S26, Google Pixel 10, OpenAI Codex and Oracle's Autonomous AI Database. Ikotas Labs won the contest overall with $361,000 and 42.5 Master of Pwn points, including a $300,000 payout for a chained exploit against the Pixel 10, ahead of runners-up Xint and Team ZyGoat.
Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5, upgrades to its fast and affordable model lines, with Haiku costing about 75% less to run than its predecessor while improving performance on coding, visual reasoning and agentic tasks. Sonnet 5.5 brings similar efficiency gains along with upgraded alignment and cybersecurity safeguards. Google and Mistral AI also released new models in the same week, part of a broader wave of updates across the industry.
Biohub announced a coordinated $1.8 billion investment with the Department of Energy, NIH, and new partners to generate and share AI-ready biological data. DOE will contribute over $500 million in measurement and computation, NIH will coordinate standardization of datasets from over $500 million in prior federal research, and Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs, and Meta are jointly investing $300 million through a Virtual Biology Initiative. The effort aims to build an open resource expanding cell response data across many more cell types and conditions than currently studied.
Google is discontinuing Safety Signal, the LTE-based safety tool on the Pixel Watch 2 and Pixel Watch 3, with access ending December 12. Users will get email and push notifications giving 30 days' notice before their access is cut off. Features like emergency SOS, fall detection and emergency contact calls will still work via WiFi, Bluetooth pairing to a phone, or an active cellular plan.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues marketers should interview customers to understand how buyer mindset changes depending on the channel—Google search, LinkedIn, Reddit, Amazon reviews, newsletters—rather than applying one value proposition everywhere. The piece recommends using these interviews to refine messaging, ad creative, landing pages and nurture sequences based on what buyers need to see or believe at each stage.
Google released AI Edge Foresight, a note-taking app currently available only on MacOS that transcribes meetings from Google Meet, Zoom or in-person conversations entirely on-device. It organizes notes, works with files like PDFs and Google Docs, and offers a Live Assistance feature to answer questions based on meeting transcripts, all without sending data to the cloud.
Google Cloud unveiled a new agentic AI feature for Gemini that can plan and execute multi-step tasks, not just answer questions, using a single interface. The rollout targets business users first, with Gemini Enterprise already used by nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies, before expanding to consumers. The agent can connect to internal business systems, use custom tools, and let users pick which AI model handles a task, including Anthropic's Claude.
Amazon's newly announced Alexa Tablet lineup, including a top-tier 12 Pro model, will include the Google Play Store out of the box rather than relying solely on Amazon's Appstore. The 12 Pro also offers an optional Nanomatte display finish designed to cut down on screen glare.
Amazon is offering 18% off the top-spec 1TB configuration of Google's Pixel 11 Pro XL, a $300 reduction from its launch price. This marks the first discount since the phone's release.